This essay recreates the exciting Latin music and dance scenes of post-World War II Southern California, showing how Mexican Americans produced and consumed a range of styles and, in the process, articulated their complex cultural sensibilities. By participating in a Spanish-language expressive culture that was sophisticated and cosmopolitan, musicians, singers, disc jockeys, impresarios, fans, and dancers rejected an Anglo-imposed cultural identity as racialized labor commodities, flirting instead with an appealing "latinidad," or Latinness. Drawing on a deep tradition of cultural and musical "mestizaje," they took a "holiday" or vacation from their assigned place in the social structure and in the city, merging ethnic Mexican pride with urban elegance to create their own social space during an age of Anglo cultural conformity. (Contains 2 figures and 18 notes.)